CH 68

……

Ugyah! Nooo!!

PYAH!!!

I’m still not used to killing roach slimes in the dungeon.

What is with their G-like movements… They weren’t attacking me, but I felt paralyzed just looking at them…

It feels like I’ll never get used to them!

「Take that!」

Even so, I have to work hard since I want soy sauce to become popular in this world.

We left out an onion, threw the plank of wood on the roach slimes and stomped on top of it.

Now that Bryce-kun wasn’t here, the amount we collect in a day has gone down by a bit, but that can’t be helped.

Even so, we’re gathering a lot more potions than if we killed them one by one. With this method, we should be able to collect a decent amount every time.

We collected lots of potions using the plank method in the morning. After lunch, we’re heading back into the dungeon, but rather than focusing on potions, we’re going to train individually by facing off against the roach slimes on our own… At least, that’s the plan.

「Okay, let’s have lunch! There are some things I’d like to check, so it might take a bit longer than usual. Is that okay?」

「Mhm, okay! Kirika knows how important doing checks are.」

「Status open. What do you want to check?」

First, I wanted to check the buff value from a piece of dried kakuni.

The dried kakuni we had this morning dropped in buff value, from +10 to +8. I was curious about the value now.

「Okay, Kurtz-kun, can you try this? It gave out +8 this morning, but I want to see how much it gives now that it’s noon.」

「Nom nom. Ah, it gave me +7. The effect got weaker again.」

I see.

I noted it down on a piece of paper:

Just made: +10

Morning: +8

Noon: +7

It was roughly twelve hours between when the kakuni was finished drying to this morning. Then, morning to noon was about six hours… Therefore, the buff value goes down by one every six hours? That means the value goes down by four every twenty-four hours, and eight every forty-eight hours. In other words, the buff value will reach zero in two-and-a-half days.

「Next, I want to see what happens if you use the dried kakuni to make another dish.」

I sandwiched dried kakuni and lettuce between bread and gave it to Kirika-chan.

「Status open. Fwah, yummy. The bread is crispy and the lettuce is crunchy. They match the taste of the meat. Huh? Kirika got +10 in buff values? Kirika thought the meat only gave +8.」

「Really? I wonder why? …Is it because when we dried the kakuni, it turned the dish into an ingredient instead? And once we used it in another dish, its status reverted back? Now that I think about it, the potion dishes don’t give any effects when we taste-test them before they’re finished.」

Kurtz-kun nodded, like he understood what was going on.

「It’s similar to medicine then. When you turn medicinal herbs into medicine, the effects go up. 」

Kurtz-kun sandwiched some dried kakuni between bread and handed it to me.

「Yuuri-neechan, check your status.」

「Oh, sure. Status open.」

Umm, the dried kakuni by itself gives +8, and together with the bread should bring the total to +10, right?

But when Kurtz-kun made yaki-onigiri yesterday, his only gave out +1 in value, so… What’s going to happen?

*bite*. Nom nom.

「Huh?」

I tilted my head.

「How is it? I’m guessing it only gave +1.」

「Y-yes, just as you said, Kurtz-kun.」

「Just like I’d thought. It doesn’t matter how much effect the herbs themselves give if you fail at compounding them. The effects will disappear. Also, depending on the level of the pharmacist who makes the medicine, there’s a difference in the value.」

Um, so…?

「Since the dish doesn’t taste bad enough to be inedible, it means I succeeded in making it. However, my dish only gives +1. In that case, it’s better to eat the dried kakuni by itself rather than turn it into a dish.」

「But if too much time passes, the effects on the dried kakuni will run out too, right? In that case, Kirika would rather turn it into a dish and eat it!」

Um, I didn’t understand what he was saying earlier, and now I understand even less…

An ingredient produced from the soy sauce potion will gradually lose its buff values as time passes, but if you use it in a dish, the values will come back?

Hm? Then…

Does that mean that even if we don’t circulate a large amount of soy sauce potions into the world, we can just circulate dried kakuni instead? One soy sauce potion can make quite a lot of dried kakuni.

Or, could there be a time limit on the buff values of dishes made from the dried kakuni? That’s similar to expiry or best-before dates.

To begin with, do potions even have best-before dates? I know that soy sauce that come in bottles last longer than those that come in PET bottles, but… Alcohol that come in bottles don’t have a best-before date…

Hmm…

「Yuuri-oneechan, here, try the one Kirika made.」

Before I realized it, Kirika-chan had made a sandwich with dried kakuni and lettuce for me. She even toasted the bread.